Books
Bennett, Amanda and Terence B. Foley. In Memoriam: A Practical Guide to Planning a Memorial Service. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Doss, Erica. Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. New York: Scribner, 2007.
Laderman, Gary. Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Lewis, C.S. A Grief Observed. New York: HarperCollins, 1996
Keister, Douglas. Stories in Stone: The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism . Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2004.
Konigsburg, Ruth Davis. The Truth About Grief: The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Metcalf, Peter and Richard Huntington. Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Meyer, Richard. Cemeteries and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1989.
Mitford, Jessica. The American Way of Death Revisited. New York: Vintage, 2001.
Murray, Sarah. Making an Exit: From the Magnificent to the Macabre—How We Dignify the Dead.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2011.
Slocum, Joshua and Lisa Carlson. Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death.
Hinesburg, Vermont: Upper Access, 2011.
Yalom, Marilyn. The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008.
Articles
Alexander, Max. "The Surprising Satisfactions of A Home Funeral." Smithsonian Magazine.
March, 2009.
Choi, Amy S. "Entrepreneurs Reinvent the Funeral Industry." Bloomberg BusinessWeek. June 2008.
Crouch, Michelle. "13 Things the Funeral Director Won't Tell You." Reader's Digest Magazine. June/July, 2011.
de Quetteville, Harry. "The Art of the Obituary." The Telegraph. January, 2012.
Dolnick, Sam. "Dance, Laugh, Drink. Save the Date: It's a Ghanaian Funeral." The New York Times. . April, 2011.
Feiler, Bruce. "Mourning in a Digital Age." The New York Times. January, 2012.
Fry, Don. "Want to Live Forever? Write Your Own Obit." Poynter Institute.
March, 2006, updated March 2011.
Glaser, Gabrielle. "The Funeral: Your Last Chance to Be a Big Spender." The New York Times.
April, 2009.
Jenkins, C.J. "We've Never Regretted a Private Burial." Mother Earth News.
December, 2011/January, 2012.
Jernigan, Joy. "More families are bringing funerals home." msnbc.com. September, 2007
Palatnik, Lori. "The Stages of Jewish Mourning: A Practical Guide." AISH.com.
Sack, Kevin. "In Tough Times, a Boom in Cremations as a Way to Save Money." The New York Times. December, 2011.
Spitznagel, Eric. "Funerals Undergoing an Eco-friendly Makeover." Bloomberg BusinessWeek. November 2011.
Zezima, Katie. "Home Burials Offer an Intimate Alternative." The New York Times.
July, 2009.
Videos & Podcasts
Gordon, Dick. "The Notebook." The Story. December, 2010.
Kim, Jae Rhim. "My Mushroom Burial Suit." Ted. July, 2011.
Web sites
Art of Mourning is an online resource for mourning art and jewelry.
Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is a professional organization for crematory operators and funeral directors.
Crossings is a nonprofit organization that helps people have home funerals.
The Federal Trade Commission offers Funerals: A Consumers Guide.
The Funeral Consumers Alliance protects consumers rights to dignified and affordable funerals.
National Home Funeral Alliance (NHFA) works to educate the public on the value of a home funeral and how to care for one's own dead.
The Green Burial Council advocates for eco-friendly burial practices in order to reduce carbon emissions and toxification and to preserve the environment.
Memorial Ecosystems, a pioneer in conservation burial, manages conservation burial grounds in South Carolina and Georgia.
Legacy.com and Tributes.com are aggregator sites for local and national obituary news.
National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is a professional organization for funeral directors.